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Hi, this is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and this is the AWT News Update for September 27, 2016.

FileMaker has been around for a long time, and over the past decade or so much of the work on the venerable database app has been towards creation of complex online systems that usually required a dedicated server machine or even an administrator. Today, FileMaker announced FileMaker Cloud, which takes the administrative and hardware requirements away by hosting FileMaker databases on Amazon Web Services Cloud. The service is available in the US and Canada right now and will be moving to other countries and regions in the future. FileMaker Cloud provides secure and reliable access to custom apps using FileMaker Pro 15.0.2, FileMaker Go 15.0.2 and FileMaker WebDirect. An app can be up and running in the cloud in less than 20 minutes, standard SSL/TLS encryption is supported, and there’s a cloud administration console that provides a dashboard view of system and app performance. We’re sure to hear a lot more about FileMaker Cloud soon.

Have a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner? Well, don’t use your scanner with Sierra until the company fixes a bug. That’s the word from Fujitsu, and the company is extending the warning to owners of ANY ScanSnap scanner. The bug results in scanned pages being turned into blank pages, and existing scanned pages can be deleted. There are other problems — black and white scans are saved as color pages and the size of the files becomes larger. Images that are exported to another app through Quick Menu on macOS Sierra may be displayed as blank pages on the preview screen of the app. Pages may be deleted if you use the Merge Pages function of ScanSnap Organizer. And if you’re using duplex scanning on business cards to enter information into CardMinder, well, it’s not reading the data on the back side of the scanned cards. It looks like Fujitsu really dropped the ball during the macOS Sierra beta testing.

Do you use the DarkSKy app on your iPhone? I’ve loved the app for years, since it’s often spot on in terms of telling you when it’s about to rain or snow. The app uses a proprietary forecasting algorithm to warn you just in time. If you’ve wanted DarkSky on your Mac, you’re in luck. The company has launched DarkSky.net, and it’s great for seeing weather data in ways you’ll not often get on a traditional weather website.

Some day soon, you may be able to watch YouTube videos on the go without running up huge data bills in the process. Google has designed a new app called YouTube Go that’s designed to let you use less data while out and about. First, you can use the offline mode to download content via Wi-Fi and then watch it later without a Wi-Fi connection or even a data connection of any sort. Next, you can use preview mode to view an animated preview GIF of a video to decide if the video is really something you want to watch now. Third, the app provides immediate info on how much data each screen resolution will use so you can dial back if you’re getting close to your data cap. Finally, if you want to send a video to a friend, it can be done via Bluetooth from the app to save their data allowance. There’s only one problem — the YouTube Go app is only available in India right now.

That’s all for today; We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with another edition of the AWT News Update.

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